Painting Makes All the Difference

Posted on January 29, 2010 
Filed Under Listing and Selling Your Home, Valerie Zinger

If your house is looking a bit tired and dated, the quickest way to make it attractive to Buyers is to paint the principle rooms in a neutral but modern palate.  A quick trip to a paint store will be invaluable.  Find the cards that show the trends and use one that will complement your existing furniture and furnishings but still let the Buyers notice how updated the rooms look. If you need colour in the room, look for a big picture, pillows and some accessories. 

Two trends that seem to be less popular are feature walls and painting techniques such as rag rolling and other special touches.  Putting sand in the paint does not fool Buyers into thinking there are no issues with bad walls.  Finding the faux suede technique fun is still no reason to inflict it on Buyers. Combing through the paint to make it look like linen or denim just means more time sanding the walls when a Buyer sees himself trying to get rid of the technique.  Classy, plain painting in neutral colours - voila  - the vanilla flavour of painting.

If your baseboards and window frames are in good shape, it could take as little as a half day to edge and paint a room.  Remember, red is not as popular as it once was and it takes up to four coats to get the right intensity.  Avoid anything requiring more than two coats.  Use a tinted primer and that will speed up the process.  If you have a good edging brush, try goingg without tape.   If you cannot get a nice clean line, tape before you paint and it will safe you hours of touch up work. 

Finally, if you accidently put paint on the ceiling, immediately remove it.  I have seen too many houses with bad paint jobs and the roller marks on the ceiling is always the first sign of an amateur job.  

Photo credit:  Brushes at the ready @ flickr.com/photos/alancleaver/4121413457/in/set-72157606825074174/

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